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At 41, Jagr Is Bruins’ Elder Statesman

BOSTON — There are flecks of gray in Jaromir Jagr’s playoff beard. He turned 41 three months ago, and he is the only player in the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Boston Bruins and the Rangers who was alive in 1973, when the two franchises last met in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jagr, who won two Stanley Cups with Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the early 1990s, is also one of the few players in the Bruins-Rangers series who has been on both teams. In the first of his three playoff seasons with the Rangers, 2005-6, Jagr scored 123 points and welcomed a rookie goalie named Henrik Lundqvist to the team.

Those were good times, he said Wednesday, especially because the success followed a lockout that wiped out the 2004-5 season.

“We were the kind of team that no one thought would make the playoffs, and we did,” Jagr said after the Bruins worked out at TD Garden, the site of Game 1 on Thursday.

He added: “It was a good group of players. I think we surprised everybody. That’s why I have such good memories of that time.”

Jagr said he was not in touch with any of the current Rangers. Lundqvist, Dan Girardi, Ryan Callahan and Marc Staal are the only holdovers from 2007-8, Jagr’s final season with the team.

“He’s such a special player,” Lundqvist said of Jagr. “I’m happy I had the opportunity to play with him. It’s a great memory to have when you look back, to have the chance to play with one of the best players who ever played the game. It was a lot of fun.”

Jagr left the Rangers in 2008 and played in Russia for three years. He returned to the N.H.L. last season to play for Philadelphia and signed with Dallas after this season’s lockout. The Bruins acquired Jagr from Dallas on April 2, after a deal with Calgary for Jarome Iginla fell through.

Photo

Jaromir Jagr spent three seasons with the Rangers, from 2004 to 2008. “He’s such a special player,” said his former teammate, Henrik Lundqvist.Credit
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

In 11 games with Boston in the regular season, Jagr scored two goals, one of them a deflection off his skate. In Boston’s seven-game first-round series against Toronto, he had four assists. He is still smart, savvy and strong enough to make a difference. Before Game 7, he was elevated to the second line, with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, and helped to break its scoring slump. Jagr was with that line during Wednesday’s workout.

Asked to compare his time in New York with his time in Boston, Jagr smiled and said: “I’m not that good. I was a lot better hockey player when I was in New York. I cannot lie.”

Modesty aside, the Bruins are glad to have him. Jagr is a fitness zealot and uses particular routines to stay in shape. Gregory Campbell said no one knew what Jagr did when he was not with the team. Jagr is always the last one to leave, Campbell said, and his car has not moved from the parking lot at the team’s training center since he arrived.

Coach Claude Julien said Jagr “has his ways of preparing himself, which, in our environment, we’ve always respected as long as it doesn’t interfere with the team concept.”

Julien added: “He’s been around long enough, and we respect that part of it. He’s been nothing but a good asset to our team.”

Asked about Jagr’s skill at reading plays, Bergeron said, “If he’s three seconds ahead of me, then he knows where I’m going, so that’s a good thing.”

Bergeron had one goal in the first six games against Toronto. He scored the tying and winning goals in Game 7, when Jagr was moved to his line.

“I’m here to help,” Jagr said. “I’m not here to make a name for myself. I think I did that over my hockey career. I’m here to help. Whatever they ask me to do. I am going to try and do my best.”

Jagr does not see himself as a difference maker anymore. He is a surefire Hall of Famer, and his next playoff goal will tie him with Jean Beliveau for 10th on the career list. But with the Bruins, his sixth N.H.L. team, he sees himself as equal parts facilitator and elder statesman.

Considering the look of his beard, the latter description is a fitting one.

SLAP SHOTS

Bruins defensemen Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden did not participate in Wednesday’s practice. Coach Claude Julien did not comment on the players’ injuries. ... With the Rangers’ well-known propensity for blocking shots, Julien was asked about the prospect of blocking Zdeno Chara’s slap shot, which has been clocked at more than 100 miles per hour. “I think, knowing their coach fairly well, he doesn’t care,” Julien said of John Tortorella. “He’s going to have everybody blocking shots.”

Correction: May 15, 2013

An earlier version of a photo caption in this story misstated the team with which Jaromir Jagr won two Stanley Cups. It was with the Penguins, not the Bruins.

Jeff Z. Klein contributed reporting from Greenburgh, N.Y.

A version of this article appears in print on May 16, 2013, on page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: At 41, Bruins’ Elder Statesman. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe